Oklahoma education officials pass pro-Bible social studies standards

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s top school board has advanced new academic standards that would require public schools to teach about the Bible and American patriotism.

Academic standards, which are reviewed every six years, set a mandatory list of topics schools must teach. Schools and teachers decide their own lesson plans for how to teach the required topics.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted 5-1 on Thursday to advance proposed standards for social studies and science to the state Legislature, which will review the standards before concluding its 2025 session in May.

The suggested social studies regulations have attracted controversy because of the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s attempt to incorporate instruction on Christian beliefs into history, government and civics classes.

For example, schools would have to begin educating second graders about biblical stories and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth “that influenced the American colonists, founders and culture.” Instruction would continue in fifth and eighth grade on the Judeo-Christian values of the American colonists.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who leads the department and the state board, has ordered all school districts in the state to keep a copy of the Bible in every classroom and teach from it. His administration bought more than 500 copies to distribute to Advanced Placement government classes.

Walters has advocated for using the Bible as a resource to contextualize the beliefs of the country’s founding fathers.

“Oklahoma is putting the Bible and the historical impact of Christianity back in school,” Walters said when he first released a draft of the standards on Dec. 19. “We are demanding that our children learn the full and true context of our nation’s founding and of the principles that made and continue to make America great and exceptional.”

Walters didn’t comment on the biblical aspects of the standards during the meeting, and he chose not to speak with news media afterward.

His order mandating Bible instruction in public schools already faces a lawsuit, and the topic has become highly polarizing in the state.

“I want to learn accurate history, not some watered down version that will be voted on Thursday,” Shawnee Middle School eighth grader Jade Valentine said at a Public Schools Day rally on Tuesday at the state Capitol.

The proposed standards also introduce more education on patriotism starting at an early age. Students would begin learning in pre-K the “ways that individuals can be patriotic.”

The science standards would add a new aeronautics section for high schools and additional expectations for age-appropriate engineering instruction.

The process of writing the standards mostly takes place with committees of teachers and experts on each subject. Walters made headlines when he announced he also would have national conservative talk show hosts and far-right-wing policy advocates weigh in on the social studies standards.

The recent replacement of three members of the state Board of Education added an unusual wrinkle to Thursday’s proceedings. One new board member, Ryan Deatherage, asked to postpone voting on the standards to next month’s meeting to allow him more time to review them.

The rest of the board, though, overruled him and chose not to delay the vote. Deatherage cast the only vote against approving the standards.

New member Mike Tinney, who said he is a former social studies teacher, complimented the work drafting committees put into developing the new standards.

“There’s a lot in there, and as I went through it, I think it’s a really balanced view of history (and) social studies,” Tinney said during the meeting.

The new members, though, objected to other decisions the board previously made. New appointee Chris Vandenhende called for a pause on administrative rules the board had approved last month that would require schools to collect students’ immigration status.

Those rules have not taken effect and won’t unless the state Legislature and governor approve them. Gov. Kevin Stitt said he is opposed to conducting immigration checks in schools.

Stitt complained the state Board of Education has fallen victim to too much “political drama,” including the proposed immigration policy. He replaced three of the board members who voted in favor of it.

In their first meeting on the board, Vandenhende, Deatherage and Tinney called for the board members, not only Walters, to have the authority to place items on their meeting agendas.

The state superintendent, the board, has the legal authority to set the items the board will discuss.

“Part of the board’s responsibility is oversight of the Department of Education,” Vandenhende said during a tense exchange in the meeting. “If we don’t have the ability to add items to the agenda that we think are important to that oversight responsibility, we cannot perform that function.”

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice. com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest statefocused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.